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A nice, easy hike along part of the Geneseee Valley Greenway. DEC has just started development of this portion of the Greenway. This section of trail is actually three different trails overlapping. Its a section of the Genesee Valley Greenway, Finger Lakes Trail, and North Country National Scenic Trail.
You MUST enter the trail at the co-ords listed as the Parking waypoint. ANY other access at this time will require crossing private property. Hopefully soon DEC will develop the trail to the south of the cache, as it is a much shorter walk. Although you could canoe/kayak to this one also. Cache is a 50cal ammo can.
OK, thats all you need to know to do the cache itself.
Make sure you stop and do Paleoman's Historic Fort Hill Cache just around the corner, also.
Congrats to Paleoman for being FTF! Also Thank You for sharing your personal connections and memories of this location. I was hoping you would do so when you found it.
Now for a history lesson:
Bluestone quarrying was one of the early industries of Wyoming County, and surrounding areas. So much so, that one of NY's two sandstone foundations is known as "Portage bluestone". The Portageville quarry began operation as early as the 1860's, and operated as late as the 1960's.
Throughout the life of the quarry, much of this highly vaunted building material was shipped overseas, as well as being used in many government and community buildings in the Northeast. You can see this stone used in a large percentage of the stone railroad abutments and culverts, road bridges and buildings in western NY built in the 19th and early 20th centuries. When the quarries were first opened, much of the stone produced was used as culvert, bridge and lock abutments on the GV Canal. I'm not sure if any stone from these quarries was ever used in developing Letchworth SP. I know the CCC operated at least two of their own quarries in the Park itself. One of which is at the top of the cliff overlooking the River, near the intersection of Rts 19 & 436 in Portageville.
There were technically three different companies which operated here. The first, and least known, was the Portageville Bluestone Company. The PBC lasted only about 10yrs, then ceased operation and closed the quarries around 1870.
By the 1870's, the railroads had caused the demise of many of the early canals; the Genesee Valley Canal being one of the casualties. The route of the canal still lived on, however, as the canal towpath was acquired as right of way for the Genesee Valley Railroad (which around 1900, was to become part of the famous PRR (Pennsylvania Railroad).
I have been told by a couple of people who actually remember the quarry in operation, that in the early years, cut stone was actually swung over the Portageville-Fillmore Road (now Rt 19), by large swinging booms, due to the quarry being on the west side of the road, and the canal/railroad being on the east. At some point, probably as the quarries moved deeper into the hillsides, the GVRR put in two railroad spurs on the west side to help with the transfer from the quarries to the finishing factory on the east.
In 1894, the Genesee Valley Bluestone Co. reopened the quarry. One of the 1st things done by the new company was to equip with new and improved machinery, including a new channeler, drills and hoists. There were 70 men employed, and the quarry ran night & day. The quarry property covered over 200 acres, all of it workable. The stone beds run 2 to 7ft thick, and with advances in technology, almost every bit of rock in sight was useable.
I'm unsure of when the next change of ownership occcured, but the third, and final company to operate the quarry was the American Bluestone Co.. It was popularly known as AMBLUCO, which I believe was the longest operating, until the closing of the quarry in the 1960's. AMBLUCO actually had its headquarters on Park Avenue in NY City, but for many years had a regional office in Olean.
Early on, AMBLUCO had also been making additions and improvements to increase and better its facilities at the quarries in Portageville. In order to better guard against shut downs, the quarries and plants had been equipped with steam power and connected with Niagara electric power.
New channeling machines, circular saw, rubbing bed and crating machinery were all of the latest electric type. A large, nearly completed storage dam would give the company a complete water supply system and four new tenant houses would attract more and better help. A new 150 foot steel building was erected, and made it possible to augment the important service of making shipments of the Ambluco non-slip treads, landings and floorings from stock during the cold months.
Today the quarries are obscured from view by trees and undergrowth, (and are now private property as well, so dont try visiting them...I am working on this, though). All that remains of the factory on the east side of Rt19 is the quarry office, which has now been turned into a seasonal rental home, called the Bluestone House and Cabins.
You can, however, right near the cache, see some large, cast-off blocks of bluestone that still show signs of the drilling which cut them. Only the highest quality of stone was shipped, so I'm guessing these were damaged during finishing or preparation for shipping, due to their location so near the canal/railroad loading docks.
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